Household income across the US has remained fairly flat between 2023 and 2024, with median household incomes exceeding just over 1%, according to estimates from the Census Bureau.
But in some cities, even a 1% increase would have seemed a bit of a boon. Median household income fell in seven of the 50 largest US cities between 2023 and 2024.
Minneapolis’ income fell at its biggest, just over 4%, with median household income falling from around $77,732 in 2023, SmartAsset found.
Family on the move (and their money)
Among households with children in Minneapolis, median income fell by 19% or more between 2023 and 2024 with each SmartAsset. That doesn’t necessarily mean that other households don’t see the benefits of the same wage, says Jaclyn Dejohn, director of economic analysis at SmartAsset.
“(Negative trends) could indicate families struggling to keep up with wage growth, but they could also indicate other social or demographic trends,” she says.
Families who experience divorces that lead to separate households and divide incomes may contribute to a decline in the overall income of the family’s household, she says. Alternatively, one parent can leave the workforce to stay home with their children.
Although it earns less than the previous year, it still exceeds the national median
Four of the seven major cities whose incomes fell between 2023 and 2024 were higher than national household income in 2023.
Dejohn says big cities tend to have more “volatility and wage growth events” due to the economic dynamics that allow new businesses to move and transform into local demographics.
And revenues grew at a rate of over 1% nationwide between 2023 and 2024, but were even slower in five of the nation’s largest cities.
Philadelphia (0.36%) Indianapolis (0.41%) Colorado Springs, Colorado (0.55%) Omaha, Nebraska (0.56%) Boston (0.89%)
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